Lost Highlander Read online

  “You and your peanut butter,” Sam said scornfully and Piper grinned. For looking so wretched, she seemed in a great mood. Manic, thought Evelyn with worry.

  “Well, what did you find in the forest?” Piper asked.

  Sam winced, clearly not wanting to admit what they had gone looking for.

  “We just wanted to rule out a time machine,” Evelyn said. “It was stupid, and anyway, the forest is way too big to ever find one if it were out there, which it isn’t, because they don’t exist.”

  “Oh, a time machine would have been wonderful,” Piper said, looking dreamy. “It would have been so easy to send Lachlan home with a time machine. And we could visit whenever we wanted.” She picked up a dish towel and started wiping down the spaces on the counters that were clear of junk, tidying the piles as she went along. “I wonder where Mellie is? She was supposed to be here an hour ago to keep helping with all this. I’d like to just put it all out on the lawn and tell the villagers to have at it. Or set it on fire. That would work, too.”

  Piper absently scratched at her arm and Evelyn reached over to stop her. Piper blinked owlishly, unaware that she’d been scratching. Looking down at her arm and frowning at the dry patchy skin, she sighed, and a tear trickled out of her eye.

  “Aw, Piper.” Evelyn patted her scaly arm. “Why don’t you go take a nice, soothing bath. Sam and I will get back on the research, won’t we, Sam?” He nodded dutifully, if a little crestfallen.

  “But the sorting. All the stuff. We have to get this place ready for tourists.” Piper wiped her eyes and sniffled.

  “Bugger the tourists,” Sam said ferociously. The girls giggled. “We can’t have anyone until Mr. Eighteenth century is gone, anyway. When Mellie gets here I’ll set her to the sorting, and we’ll be slogging through all these bloody books.”

  Piper nodded and started shuffling out of the kitchen. Sam and Evelyn looked sadly at the books. As Evelyn was trying to get as comfortable as possible in one of the kitchen chairs, there was a banging noise and what sounded like a scream from the front hall.

  “Bloody hell, what now,” Sam said, running for the hall. Evelyn followed to find Mellie nearly hysterical in the front entrance, the door open behind her, letting in a fierce wind. Evelyn rushed past her to close the door, while Piper was trying to get Mellie to come in all the way. Mellie was pulling against her, reaching behind her for the door frame and shaking her head vehemently. She was trying to say something but it was impossible to understand her through her sobs. Sam waved Evelyn and Piper back and took Mellie by the shoulders.

  “Mel, what’s wrong? Come in and sit down.” Mellie choked and shook her head, looking up at the stairway with fear and loathing in her eyes.

  “I don’t want to come in here, not with him here,” she sobbed. “Sam, you’ve got to come away from here, you lot, too.” Mellie looked wild eyed at all of them, then back at the stairs.

  “Mellie,” Sam said loudly and gave her a slight shake. “What is it?” The distraught girl dropped her chin to her chest and cried inconsolably.

  “Sam, Mrs. Abernathy’s dead,” she finally managed after Sam realized shaking her wasn’t doing any good and hugged her instead. She stood stiffly against him, her face against his chest. “She’s been killed.” Her words were muffled against Sam’s sweater and he leaned back a little.

  “What?” he asked, his eyes filling with dread. “Say it again?”

  “Mrs. Abernathy’s been murdered,” she howled, her face red and tears coursing down her cheeks. “Elliot Feinman found her this morning. Sam, she was killed by a -- by a -- she was cut to pieces by an axe.” Mellie went boneless from the stress of having to deliver such a terrible statement and slumped to the ground.

  Sam was still holding her and he dropped down, trying to keep level with her, searching her face. He heard what she said but couldn’t make the words make sense. Janie Abernathy was a teacher at the primary school, she’d taught both Sam and his sister. She had the best Halloween candy, and the most extravagant Christmas lights in her front garden. She did a monthly storytime at his shop, complete with music and puppets. The place was packed every month with children and their parents.

  “What?” he said again. He turned away for a second to look at Piper and Evelyn, who were standing a short distance away, mute with horror, holding each other’s hands.

  “I was there this morning, I was walking Poppet, and Chief Erickson and that dumb deputy, and a whole load of neighbors were out, and the emergency van was there. Elliot was crying and then I heard a man tell Chief Erickson he saw a stranger about last night, late. He was coming home from the pub and saw this stranger.” Mellie stopped to take a shaky breath and scrub at her tears. She looked up at Piper, then at the stairway and started to sob once again. Sam, still squatting on the ground next to Mellie, had started to shake, his face growing redder and redder.

  “What stranger?” Sam said in a curiously controlled voice. Mellie saw that his eyes were filled with unshed tears and this made her cry even harder. He squeezed her shoulders, almost too hard. “What stranger? he repeated.

  “He said he was tall, really big, and dressed in, dressed in a -- like the military pensioners in the parades. He was the one who killed Mrs Abernathy.” She slumped even further to the floor, and Sam let go of her and stood up. Evelyn saw his eyes were about to spill over and he angrily swiped at the tears. He swore and started for the stairs. Piper immediately put two and two together.

  “No, Sam,” she said, stepping in front of him before he could get to the stairway. “No, it wasn’t Lachlan.”

  He put his hands out in front of him like he wanted to push Piper away but didn’t. “Like the military pensioners, Piper. He was wearing a kilt, the whole soldier’s getup.” Sam’s voice broke and a tear rolled down his cheek.

  Evelyn felt sick. She started to reach out to Sam, but he glared at her, a look so angry she recoiled and went to try to help Mellie. She sat down by the sobbing bundle on the floor and put her arm around the poor girl. Sam made a terrible sound, a growl of anguish and rage and brushed past Piper, taking the stairs two at a time.

  “Sam, it wasn’t him.” Piper raced after him and threw herself at him, grabbing him and holding on. Tiny Piper barely came up to his bicep but she managed to grapple him around his neck. He continued to storm up the stairs, with Piper dangling from him, yelling at him to please listen.

  “Don’t let them go up there with him,” Mellie whimpered and the stricken girl’s terrified face made Evelyn’s blood run cold with fear. She remembered the diary of the houseguest from Lachlan’s time, describing the monster who had been captured here so long ago, then just disappeared. They had dismissed it, based on what? Lachlan’s charming smile? And now an innocent old lady was dead, hacked to bits by a time displaced madman.

  Evelyn got up and raced after Piper and Sam. Since Sam was hampered by Piper clinging to him, Evelyn was able to get in front of them both to try to halt them.

  “Wait, please, Sam.” She felt electric jolts of fear running through her whole body. All she wanted was for all of them to get out of the house. “Please, I think we should get out.”

  Lachlan had nothing to lose. They would not win in a fight against him. Sam stopped and angrily shook Piper off of him, grabbing her arm to keep her from falling down the stairs. He kept wiping away the tears that refused to stop falling, his jaw set, his eyes steely with resolve.

  “He cannot get away with this,” he said in a tone Evelyn was glad was not directed at her.

  She shook her head. “No, of course not. But he’s dangerous. We need to go and get the police. We need to go now.” Her voice rose shrilly at the end of her plea. Sam stared at her as if she were crazy.

  “He killed …” Sam couldn’t finish, he was crying in earnest, his head down. “She was a sweet old lady. The bastard didn’t have to … “

  He pushed past both Evelyn and Piper, newly resolute to exact his revenge. Piper screamed at him to stop and listen
to her, but he continued. Evelyn grabbed his arm but he easily shook her off. When he reached the landing to the the second floor, one of the bedroom doors opened and Lachlan stepped into the hallway. Sam roared with fury and charged at him.

  Piper screamed at the top of her lungs and Evelyn’s throat completely closed up. She couldn’t breathe, let alone scream. Evelyn stood frozen as she watched Sam attack Lachlan, who stood stone still in the hallway looking confused. Piper threw herself at Sam again, but missed and bounced hard into the wall, going down like a small sack of bricks. Now Evelyn could scream, afraid Piper would get trampled by Sam and Lachlan, and she darted up the rest of the stairs to throw herself into the fray.

  Sam was throwing savage, ruthless punches at Lachlan, and Evelyn noticed that while Lachlan was trying to defend himself from the blows, he wasn’t fighting back. She grabbed Piper by the hand and dragged her away from the men so she wouldn’t get stepped on or hit. As soon as Piper was back on her feet, to Evelyn’s extreme exasperation, she jumped in between Sam and Lachlan, throwing her arms out to try to shield Lachlan from Sam’s fists.

  “Stop,” she shrieked and then opened her mouth and let out a shrill banshee scream.

  Sam stopped mid-strike to avoid hitting Piper and took a disoriented step back from the piercing, strident wail coming out of her. As soon as Lachlan saw that the blows stopped, he clapped his hand over Piper’s mouth, effectively cutting off her shriek. Evelyn gasped to see her friend was now a hostage. Sam swore, glaring first at Piper, then at Evelyn, who, even through her distress, felt that the filthy look was both unfair and unwarranted. She’d tried to stop them.

  “Let her go,” Sam demanded, then repeated it in Gaelic. Lachlan dropped his hand from Piper’s mouth and stepped back. Piper reached behind her and took Lachlan’s hand and tried to reach forward with her other hand to place it consolingly on Sam’s arm, but he looked at her as if she were something from a swamp and stepped quickly out of her reach.

  “How can you … “ He trailed off, looking sick. Evelyn jumped forward and stood close to Sam in case he decided to start swinging again. The look on his face told her that Piper being in the way might no longer be a deterrent to him.

  “Listen to me,” Piper pleaded. “Just listen. He can’t have done it. It happened last night, right?”

  Sam nodded tersely, his fists bunching up at his sides. Evelyn felt his arms tensing and she edged closer to him.

  “He can’t have been the one, Sam.”

  “Why not?” Sam said, and the ice in his voice was even colder than the look in his eyes. Piper turned and glanced quickly at Lachlan, who had been standing there as still as a statue ever since he’d gotten Piper to stop screaming, his eyes never leaving Sam. He still looked confused and was clearly struggling to understand what was going on. Piper sighed.

  “Because I was with him the whole night.”

  ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  They were gathered together in a small sitting room Evelyn had never seen before, the walls garishly papered in gold and cream brocade. The room wasn’t electrified and the only light was a small gas lamp doing its best to illuminate the room from an ornately gilded side table.

  The tense silence among them was punctuated by small hiccuping sobs from Mellie, who was cowering in the corner of a velvet loveseat. Sam sat next to her with his arm around her, trying to calm her, his own face still stained with tears and set with a deep anger. No one knew what to say or where to start, each inclined to concentrate on his or her own misery. Evelyn kept sneaking nervous glances at Lachlan, who was completely overpowering a powder blue armchair in the corner. Piper perched on the arm of it, with her hand protectively on his shoulder.

  After Piper dropped her bombshell about spending the night with Lachlan, effectively providing him with an alibi for the local woman’s grisly murder, Evelyn and Sam stared at her in wide eyed, slack jawed shock. Before either one of them could recover enough to say something, Lachlan stepped forward, asking what was going on.

  “I do no’ understand,” he said, holding his hand out placatingly at Sam, who seemed unlikely to throw any more punches after Piper’s revelation, but still visibly seethed with hurt and rage. “Has someone been hurt?”

  Sam sucked in his breath and Evelyn quickly stepped in between them, reaching behind her to touch Sam’s arm, feeling his forearm muscles bunching.

  “A woman has been killed in the village,” she said slowly, and probably louder than necessary, unsure of how much English he understood. Piper rolled her eyes and Evelyn tried to speak normally. “A witness said the killer was wearing a kilt.” She nodded at Lachlan’s clothes. “Nobody wears them anymore in our time, except for special occasions.” She shrugged apologetically.

  Lachlan stared at her for a moment, his already strained and pale face going even whiter as he seemed to realize something. He staggered back and Piper grabbed his arm.

  “Lachlan, what is it?” she cried. He was shaking his head in disbelief and took hold of the door frame to steady himself. Lachlan said something under his breath in Gaelic that caused Sam to start. They both spoke rapidly back and forth, each becoming more agitated.

  “Stop,” Piper said. “Speak English, please. What’s going on?” Lachlan put his arm around her and Sam looked stricken.

  “There’s someone else,” Sam said, looking like he might sink to the floor under the weight of what he knew. Alarmed at the way both of the men were acting, Evelyn turned and put her hands on Sam’s chest, to steady and focus him.

  “What do you mean?” she said, heart pounding with apprehension and fear.

  “When I was taken by the Glens, my group was hunting a man who escaped from lands close to ours on the eve of his trial. It was urgent that we catch him.” Lachlan glanced at Piper. “The Glens were foolish to detain me. They had no knowledge of this man and did no’ believe me when I said how important it was for me to continue on with my men. We lost his trail but heard there was information of his whereabouts at a keep to the south.” He rubbed his hand over his stubbled jaw and closed his eyes. “His name is Brian Duncan, and his soul is truly black. If he is indeed in this time along with me, we must find him and stop him.”

  Piper whimpered and Lachlan hugged her tightly before stepping away from her, resolute. He looked solemnly at Sam. “He cannot be allowed to live in this time.”

  “But we don’t know how to send you back, either of you,” Piper said..

  “We haven’t found anything yet,” Evelyn said. Lachlan shook his head furiously. Sam took her hands and held them, looking into her eyes with a look that chilled her to her bones.

  “He cannot live in this time, or any other,” Lachlan said. “We must find him, and kill him.”

  After Piper and Evelyn convinced Sam and Lachlan not to go running off with weapons blazing, they convened to the sitting room to come up with a plan. Sam was distraught, and poor Mellie was still on the verge of hysteria. It took a lot of tea and soothing from Sam and Piper to get her to the gently sniffling huddle she was in now.

  When the initial shock began to wear off, they realized they had no idea what to do about Brian Duncan, and Piper and Evelyn were beginning to worry the men would want to rush off and be dangerously manly if they didn’t think of something soon.

  Evelyn stood up and motioned for Piper to follow her outside. Piper patted Lachlan’s shoulder and smoothed the hair off his brow before she got up to follow Evelyn out of the room. Sam watched them leave with a blank look, continuing to try to console Mellie.

  Evelyn led Piper far away from the sitting room so that she could speak freely. Her nerves were a jangled mess. She wrung her hands and looked at Piper with desperation. Piper merely sighed and shook her head, also completely at a loss.

  “Things are worse,” Piper said needlessly and Evelyn choked a little, not a laugh, not a cry.

  “Did you sleep with Lachlan?” Evelyn asked. Piper raised her eyebrow, not expecting that question at a time like this.

>   “No,” she said adamantly. “He would never. He treats me like I’m a noble lady. He would never risk ruining my reputation.”

  “Does he think you’re a virgin?” she asked and Piper gave her a dirty look.

  “Shut up,” she sighed wearily. “We were just talking last night. He tells me things about this place. He was here a few times before the cattle stealing debacle. He knew my relatives. I just … I just wanted to know about what things were like here.”

  “Piper, I didn’t mean anything.” Evelyn hugged her contritely. Piper started to cry into Evelyn’s shoulder.

  “What are we going to do?” she muffled into Evelyn’s sweater. “How did this happen? I don’t know how any of this happened, and now someone is dead.”

  Evelyn patted her back. “None of this is your fault,” she said. Piper pulled away, eyes wild and filled with tears.

  “Maybe it is,” she said. “I didn’t want him to go. Not really, not after I got to know him. Even when he started to get sick, I was thinking we could fix him and keep him here. I … I like him, Evie.” She wiped away her tears and slouched defeatedly. “He’s better than any man I’ve ever known. He’s the kindest, gentlest … even if I wasn’t with him last night I know he’d never hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it.”

  Evelyn absorbed this, trying not to let her emotions show. She hadn’t spent any amount of time with Lachlan, not like Piper had, but it still seemed completely out of the realm of consideration that Piper could be so attached to him. Sure, he was wonderful to look at, and had those nice old fashioned manners. Piper was just under too much pressure, she wasn’t thinking straight.

  “Whether you wanted him to stay or not, doesn’t change the fact that we didn’t find a single answer in all the hours of our research. We just couldn’t find an answer, Pipes, that isn’t your fault.”

  Piper nodded and wiped her nose, unconvinced and guilty looking. Evelyn hugged her again and they turned back to the sitting room, neither of them wanting to go in.